The Real Africa
Restricted to broad valleys below 1 000 m above sea level, the Mpumalanga Lowveld in South Africa is what many people consider to be the "real" Africa. In this low-lying subtropical climate, broad-leafed and thorn trees coexist happily in relatively open woodland, interspersed with long grass and, of course, game like elephant, cheetah and lion.
In the far north, it gets hotter and the vegetation changes to Mopane woodland. In the very northern part of the country, huge baobab trees dominate the landscape.
Much of the Kruger National Park falls into this biome. However, the division between the Bushveld and the Lowveld is somewhat blurred. The rivers here tend to be broad and slow moving and may consist of no more than a few unconnected pools at the end of the dry season, which is when wildlife congregates around the few water sources making it a good time to view them.
In the 1700s and early 1800s, several European hunters and explorers ventured into the Lowveld in search of game, gold and/or glory....
The western strip of the Kruger National Park is underlain by Old Granite and the eastern half composed of much younger Lebombo Basalts (of ...
The Transvaal Sequence rests on a granite floor two billion years old which paves most of the Lowveld and forms the boulder koppies in the s...
Literally meaning ‘low-lying grasslands’, the Lowveld is situated in the north-eastern part of South Africa...